Forgotten
by blackmoon124
Summary: If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound. If a shinobi dies far away from her village and no one mourns, did she exist?


Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto

2 days...

2 _fucking_ days

Tayuya groaned, the sun rose and set two times already and she was still stuck in this god damned tree. She could feel herself dying, but she just won't leave the world of the living, hoping against hope that someone friendly would come rescue her already.

In her lessons with Orochimaru, she learned that when a village loses a shinobi on a mission, teams are sent out immediately to recover their bodies to keep their village secrets, and although unsaid, to be mourned properly. The Leaf ninja responded fast, a short while after that blonde skank and the pineapple-head left, she saw Leaf ANBU carrying the unconscious bodies of the genin that chased her team down. Granted, they were in their home so a quick response was expected, but it's been 48 god-fucking hours and there was still no sound ninja in sight.

A sudden memory of when she was a little girl with her mother on the run came up in her mind

* * *

_Flashback_

_A 4 year-old Tayuya came up to her mother as she was packing up their items to move out in the morning._

_"Kaa-san, why are we always running, why don't we have a place to call home? "_

_"I'm sorry Ta-chan, but when you were born, Earth country was in a war that we were losing. I was a kunoichi of Iwa back then and I was based in the frontlines. Your father and I were squadmates and when you were born, we were so happy."_

_"What happened to otou-san?" The little girl asked when tears started forming on her mother's eyes._

_"Leaf nin was attacking, and your father was forced to go into the front, he never came back." Choking back a sob, she continued, "It was then I decided that I needed to get out of there. I would've been next, and I did not want you to become an orphan. I've lost all my friends in that war, so there wasn't anything holding my loyalty to the village."_

_"Wasn't it your home though?" asked Little Tayuya_

_At this her mother smiled and gave her a hug._

_"Always remember this Ta-chan, home is not a place, it is the people. No matter where you are, as long as you are with me, you will always have a home. A home is where there is someone thinking of you, no matter what location they are at, so Ta-chan, with you by me, we are always home."_

_A couple months after this conversation, Iwa hunter-nin finally tracked down her mother and killed her right in front of her eyes. Although scared, she remembered the genjutsu lessons her mother, in which she specialized in, taught her for use in defending herself. She took out her flute and started playing a melody that cast a genjutsu over the hunter-nin and ran as fast as she could away and when she was in the clear, curled up and cried to herself._

_Orochimaru saw the fight himself as he was looking for missing nin with potential to help populate his new village. Saya Mizashi was on his list, but she was hunted down and killed, sighing, he was about to leave when he saw a little girl cast a genjutsu good enough to fool three ANBU-level ninja and run. _

_"Perhaps this wasn't a waste of time after all," he mused to himself, "To be able to cast genjutsu so well at that age, she would grow up to be a serious fighter, and she's young enough to mold to my tastes." He followed her and when she curled up and started crying, he decided to approach her with a friendly demeanor._

___"Little girl, are you alright?" A serpentine voice asked her. She turned around and saw a tall, pale-skinned man with yellow-eyes looking at her. Not seeing a response, the man continued, _

___"I saw the fight, and I'm sorry I couldn't help you in time. It's dangerous for a little girl to be out here alone, come with me and I'll give you a home and help you become strong. You'll never lose anyone again." _

* * *

"_Lies_," thought Tayuya bitterly to herself. Sure he gave her shelter, food, and training, but he never gave her a home in Sound. The only time she felt at home was when she was with the Sound 4. Despite everything, all their bickering, their threats, the team did feel like a family to her. They lived together, trained together, and joked with each other. When she was with them, she knew that she was in at least someone's thoughts. Kimmimaro was not a part of them. They had a shared hatred of Kimmimaro, but did not dare disobey the leader of the Sound 5 for they knew he would kill them without a moment's notice.

_"They're all dead now, and the snake bastard does not even give a crap, not even enough to make sure our bodies won't give away secrets_." If he acted like any normal leader, he would've sent teams as soon as they were delayed, fuck Kimmimaro would've told him that we were MIA or KIA, and maybe they could've made it out with injuries like her. Now everyone is dead, and she was going to be a corpse soon too.

_"Fucking trash, lucky pieces of shit, this all their fault,"_ despite everything, she envied them. They were weak, but they had someone who cared. Someone who immediately came to help them when something was wrong. Someone that was thinking of them. That was more than what she could say for herself. Everyone that would have thought of her was probably dead, she's more than likely the last member of the Sound 4 still breathing as she was the last to fight, she didn't care what happened to Kimmimaro.

_"I've got nothing, no friends, no comrades, no one thinking of me at all, I don't even have a home"_ and for the first time in a decade, tears came to her eyes as she closed her eyes for the last time.

* * *

Shikamaru sat in his hospital bed as he thought back to his mission, or more specifically, his fight. He knew he would've lost to that redhead if Temari did not come and save him at the last minute. Despite being enemies, Shikamaru could not help but respect that troublesome redhead, she was the first person his age to keep up with him in intelligence and in the end actually beat him.

He could never find anyone his generation smart enough to match him play by play, move by move when it came to strategy. He always wanted to find someone his age that could challenge him in intelligence and play a good game of shougi with, and when he finally did, one of them had to die. Sighing in regret he saw the image of the redhead one last time in his head as he went back to sleep, hoping that maybe he can challenge her to a game of shougi in the afterlife.

* * *

**A/N**: Like it? Hate it? If people want me to, I can write a full-length fanfic based around this idea (obviously, the ending would be different as I can't have a dead person as the main character), hope you enjoyed the story and please share your feedback!

~blackmoon124


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